inFamous: The Four Aces
by TheBrownEye
Summary: The D.U.P. have done their work and the U.S. government is ready to take over the handling of the bio-terrorists. Three conduits by the names of Fetch, Hank, and Eugene were set to be a part of the first set of transfers, but thanks to unforeseen circumstances, they escaped. However, they weren't the only conduits scheduled to be transferred. Four more were on the list.
1. Chapter 1

_**LOCATION: NORTH-EASTERN ARKANSAS**_

 _ **TIME: 2:33 PM**_

It was supposed to be an easy transport. Four detainees, two standard army APC's, half a dozen army guards per transport, and an easy drive down some of the more rural parts of the state to avoid the heavily populated areas on their way to their next rendezvous.

Those plans, along with their vehicles, were thoroughly derailed halfway through the trip when flashes of bright azure lights shone through the windows of the first APC. The vehicle began to swerve all over the road as more lights and loud bangs emanated from it. The army personnel in the second vehicle became worried to the point that they were about to call in the unexpected event. However, they were struck with shock and awe when they witnessed the terrifying sight of the front half of the first vehicle exploding outward and throwing all manner of debris onto the road ahead. Arcs of blinding azure electricity accompanied the sight, only now being recognized as the obvious cause of the commotion.

Having lost all ability to steer, the first APC toppled onto its side and skidded across the asphalt while still erupting fire and sparks everywhere. The driver of the second vehicle turned to his partner in the seat next to him with a look of overwhelming terror. Their silent conversation of unanswered questions was soon interrupted by another set of commotions coming from the cargo area in the back of their vehicle. The sounds of a struggle and the ensuing shouts and loud pops of gunfire coming from behind them distracted them just long enough to miss the being that crawled its way out of the overturned vehicle in front of them.

Before they even had time to react, more sparks of the same blue electricity crackled up and around the being's forearms. The being raised those arms to point directly at the second vehicle in front of it. The guard sitting shotgun was the first to notice and shouted for the driver to swerve out of the way, but it was too late. The two army personnel in the front seats cried out in panic as the arcs of blue energy shot out from the being's arms and raced through the air toward them.

In no time at all, the barrage of electrified bolts sparked the engine's fuel line and the front of the vehicle was engulfed in flames. The tires blew out, and the steering column melted under the intense heat and pressure until the vehicle had no choice but to tumble onto its side and dive into a side ditch out from the road. There, it ground to a halt in the dirt. The only sounds coming from it now where the dying, crackling embers of what was left of the front of the vehicle.

The being that had caused such destruction in less than a few minutes walked slowly up to the second vehicle. She had to work fast, but at the same time, moved cautiously toward the rear of the vehicle to avoid a potential ambush from any of the surviving guards. Her arms took on the distinctive blue haze of electrical energy that fueled her powers and peeked around toppled transport's roof, now It's side, to find… nothing. It was both a relief and a worrying sight, due to the fact that the people she had been hoping to see were nowhere in sight. That only meant that they must still be in the transport.

She moved quickly around to where the armored transport's rear doors were located. She was in luck, as the vehicle's rough stop had broken the locking pins on the rear doors and left them open. With another quick, yet methodical, sweep of the area before moving in, the young woman climbed in through the rear of transport and surveyed the inside.

It did not look pretty. A good section from the side of the transport that now sat as the roof had crumpled in, leaving a sizeable dent inward. Dirt and debris dusted the interior from both the busted out rear doors and shattered viewing window at the front of the cargo area leading to the front cabin.

Though it was the military garbed occupants that drew the most attention to the scene. Four of them, and none of them looked like they were going to be getting up anytime soon, if ever again. Two of them looked like they had had limbs bent in directions that they were definitely not supposed to bend in. The interior of the vehicle had smears and splatters of blood that, by judging from the army personnel, definitely came from them as they were thrown from their seats and tossed about. They all wore masks and sunglasses, or a helmet with a reflective face shield that concealed their features, but the young woman could tell none of them were conscious.

Yet, between all that, there were only two occupants of the transport that the young woman's concern took priority for. One was a young man, just out of his teens, and the other was a girl that only looked to be about a year or two years younger than him. Instead of military uniforms, they were garbed in bright orange prison-like uniforms, much like that of the young woman's attire who was observing them from the rear entrance of the vehicle. The contrasting black logos across the backs of their shirts read in big, blocky lettering, 'DUP DETAINEE'.

Remarkably, they looked to be in the best shape out the rest of the occupants of the transport, but that actually didn't surprise the young woman gazing over them. She knew what they were capable of. Though time was growing short, and the young woman that came searching for these two other figures tread quickly across the disarray and snatched the both of them up in her deceptively strong arms.


	2. Chapter 2

_**LOCATION: NORTH-EASTERN ARKANSAS**_

 _ **TIME: 2:47 PM**_

"Wake up! Come on, get your ass in gear!"

A woman continued to try and get the younger man beneath her to awaken. Shaking the poor soul was only getting the bear minimum of a groan in protest for her actions. She was losing patience, if only for the fact that this was not a good time for her or any of the now escapees to be just lying around when they should be getting as far away from their current location as possible.

Her name was Nataline, or as she preferred to be called, 'Natie'. Out of her current circle of friends, she was the oldest at twenty-two years old. She had a fair complexion, which was only offset by her dirty blonde hair that never wanted to stay completely straight no matter how much she combed it. It might have been due to the lack of proper hair care products that she didn't have access to for the last five years of her life. Or perhaps it was to her own lack of maintenance of said hair, but it wasn't like her top priority for most days of those five years was quality hygiene. Though, one could say that her natural ability to control electricity or most electrical energies may play a factor in her getting a split end or two.

It might be important to know, if one didn't already know, that the young woman known as Natie is a 'conduit'. A being with the ability to absorb, control, and manipulate a certain type of matter or energy known to man. The world has had its fair share of run-ins with this new breed of 'super-humans' in the past. Some that could lift objects over a hundred times their size and weight with just their minds. Some that could turn an entire city block into a frozen wonderland, or wasteland depending on who you asked. Then there were some that could reduce an entire city into a desolate, post-apocalyptic crater of its former glory with just a snap of their fingers. These types of people were both loved and feared by mankind depending on how they utilized their powers, but one thing was certain about all of them; they all died out. Or so the world thought for a while.

A long time ago, an event took place in an old bayou of a town. This event was also the turning point for a major crisis that the people of earth were suffering through known as 'The Plague'. Not many people really remember what went down in that old town, but most people remember what came after. A wave of bright light swept across the skies all around the world. Those that had been suffering because of 'The Plague' were suddenly cured. Not even the most brilliant of doctors could figure out what caused this miracle cure. Though, not everyone was left to wonder about this unexpected turn of events. At the same time as the wave of light spread across the earth and those that had been sick were miraculously cured, there were those that inexplicably just collapsed, dead were they once stood.

All of this took place in such a short amount of time that the vast majority of the world's populace were left in utter shock and confusion. News outlets had scrambled to keep on top of the story as it unfolded, but ever since the first sightings of these so called 'super-humans' and 'The Plague', then to their sudden disappearance had left them reeling. It was like a dream that everyone suddenly woke up from all at once, and the world was left to deal with the broken pieces to pick back up. So, that's what they did. The world kept moving and more started to forget the craziness that the world was subjected to for just over a single year.

That peace hadn't lasted for long though. The beings known as 'conduits' began to spring up all over the world again almost within another year. One by one, more people with super-human abilities were revealed to the eyes of the world, and with them, sprouted a fear in the rest of the populace for what these beings could do. In the United States of America, these super powered beings were often hunted down out of fear. Rallies of lynch mobs grew in number and the rest of the country was thrown into a panic. That's when the government stepped in, or rather, the organization that the government put in charge of the matter; _The Department of Unified Protection_.

This new organization was swift, precise, and above all, what the people of the U.S. had been praying for. They hunted down the now rebranded 'Bio-terrorists' with impunity. Subjugated them and imprisoned them in the maximum security detention center, Curdan Cay Station. For seven years, and with the government at their back, the D.U.P. soothed the U.S. of their fear of the 'Bio-terrorist threat' and brought about a certain amount of peace to the country.

Yet, when the order for the D.U.P. to be disbanded and all bio-terrorists were to be released into the custody of the U.S.'s government, a certain group of those bio-terrorists took this as their one and only chance at escaping their imprisonment. This is where one of those bio-terrorists, known as Natie, now stood. Or rather, leaning over another one of her fellow escapees, giving him electrically charged slaps across the face. The guy she currently was trying to rouse groaned even louder as he became aware of the world around him.

"Ow…"

The one word reply was all he could manage under the circumstances. He felt like a truck got flipped over on him. Though to be fair, it wasn't a completely inaccurate assessment. He just happened to be _inside_ the truck when it got flipped. Getting thrown about the inside of an armored transport tends to jumble the memory a bit.

"Come on, Sam!" The woman called out impatiently, "We need to get moving before they realize what happened!"

"Ugh, five more minutes," the younger man on the ground mumbled like he was trying to hit the snooze button on an alarm clock for the umpteeth time.

A scowl crossed Natie's face as she charged up a more powerful slap filled with electricity to give his face.

*Kzzt-Smack*

"Yeeeooowwch!"

The young man shot up from the ground after having been literally shocked back to full consciousness.

He shook his head around to clear the spots from his eyes before giving Natie an annoyed look.

Sam looked just on the verge of being out of his teens. Thick lengths of jet black hair whipped around his brow before settling into a style that looked like he just got out of bed. Wide, sky blue eyes gazed curiously out at the world around him. Many had mistook this look before for someone who had no idea what was going on around him, but those who knew him knew he was always observing his surroundings and keeping an eye out for danger.

"Damn it, Natie," The youth known as Sam said, "Couldn't you have gone a _little_ bit easier on the wake-up call?"

From a couple yards away, another guy was stretching and giving Sam a devious grin, "What, was pretty boy expecting a kiss from his Prince Charming or something?"

"And a hardy 'Fuck you' to you too," Sam smartly replied.

Lu, the third member of this little group of 'delinquents', was about a year older than the other adolescent. Though, he was more broadly built and stood almost a head taller. He had a mess of dark brown hair that almost looked like mahogany. It seemed to naturally sweep up without any evidence of gel. Cool hazel eyes with flecks of green around the iris gave him a sharp gaze toward anyone that looked directly at him. If anyone gave him a passing glance, they would say he was of an asian decent, although, he was only half Chinese. The rest was a bit of a mix, but it just wasn't as noticeable unless you looked.

The two guys were about to get into their usual quarrel if not for a crackle of blue electricity catching their attention. The woman that was giving them both an aggravated glare hissed angrily at them, "Both of you shut up and get your shit together, or you're getting left behind!"

Lu rolled his eyes, but went back to checking over the wreckage of the first overturned vehicle. Sam did as the woman asked, but there was one last thing he had to take care of before he was ready to move.

"Uh, Natie? A little help with these?" Sam asked, holding up his hands that were still bound within a set of standard D.U.P. suppression cuffs.

Natie was already on it as she brought her hands up to clasp the outer casing of the all encompassing device. More electricity surged from Natie's arms and into the cuffs. Consequently, this also meant that all that electricity was passed through the youth and caused him to seize up from the thousands of volts now coursing through him.

Luckily, he wasn't an ordinary youth, also being an entity known as a conduit. Much like the woman, Sam wielded power that no ordinary human could use, but that didn't make him invincible. So, although it hurt, the overcharge did its job in frying the electrical locks on the suppression cuffs and caused them to clatter open. The smoking cuffs fell to the ground, leaving Sam's hands free at last.

"Thanks," Sam offered in gratitude while massaging his wrists, before getting a silly smirk on his face, "Don't suppose you could give my phone a charge while you're at it?"

He had no actual phone, but it was just Sam's way to joke at a time like this. Natie was unamused however and snapped her fingers in front of his face. Electricity jumped across her fingertips before she snapped them forward to point behind Sam.

"Go get Isabelle, make sure she's ok, and get ready to move," Natie hissed, inches away from Sam's face with a fierce look.

Sam pushed his arms up defensively and backed away slowly, "R-right, I got it."

Sam turned around to find their final companion sitting on the ground, still shaking off her dizziness from the crash.

Isabelle, the youngest out of the group was a frail looking girl. Yet, like Sam or Natie, her appearance was deceiving and hid a deceptive strength for a girl her size. Golden brown locks of hair cascaded down from her head and down to just past her shoulders. Some of it even fell over her bangs and partially hid her seafoam green eyes. A bit of dirt and grass dusted the girl's frame, but this did nothing the detract from her visage.

Sam closed the distance between them and knelt down beside her. His hand moved up to clasp her shoulder to which she reacted to with a flinch and a sharp intake of air. Though, upon seeing who it was, she slowly relaxed.

Sam smiled gently to put her further at ease before asking, "Hey, you okay?"

Isabelle answered with a silent nod and looked down at her still bound hands. Sam noticed this and offered his own, now free, hands to see what he could do to remedy this.

"Don't worry, I'll have those off before you can say, 'Harry Potter Spoilers'," Sam said with another encouraging smile.

Isabelle knew how much Sam loved his movies, even if neither of them had seen one in years, so the little bit of cinematic humor was just another way to cut the tension even further. It seemed to have done the trick as Isabelle let out a giggle. She raised her encased hands up for Sam to inspect before uttering that a certain potions master of Hogwarts was the cause of death for its headmaster. Sam chuckled and rolled his eyes before getting to work on getting the suppression cuffs off of his friend.

The male conduit searched the contraption until he found the one access plate that he was looking for and that wasn't riveted shut. At Natie's insistence, Sam had vigorously studied the D.U.P. suppression cuffs of every detail it had whenever the guards at Curdan Cay weren't looking. He knew just about every part of them from his countless times of looking over his own whenever he was made to wear them.

The thing about these specially designed cuffs was that a conduit who wore them couldn't use their powers due to the ray field radiation, a conduit's raw form of energy, suppressive material that insulated the whole of the interior of the cuffs themselves. Once a conduit was locked up in the device, other than their physical mutations, they were practically no different than an ordinary human being.

However, the outer casing was left with no countermeasures against outside conduit forces seeking to tamper with them. This meant that any components, such as the electronic locking mechanism or the emergency manual release key port, were left unguarded against these types of tampering. Which was exactly what Sam was working on at this very moment.

The face plate to the key port came loose after just a minute of prying at the cheaper metal. He tossed the offending piece over his shoulder and proceeded to check the inner components that were now exposed. Technically, there wasn't much to see other than the key port. So, Sam raised his right hand and closed his fingers into a fist aside from his pointer as if he were pointing directly at the key port itself.

Being a wire conduit, Sam was endowed with the ability to, well, control and manipulate metal strands or wires. It was a bit of an unusual subset of the known 'metal' conduit abilities, but certainly not unheard of. Honestly, the wire conduit didn't mind it all that much. He considered it a good challenge to adapt and overcome some the more 'powerhouse' types of conduit abilities whenever he was put to the test against said types.

"Alright, I've got fifty-two seconds as my old record," Sam looked up and smiled reassuringly to the younger conduit before him, "Bet I can shave at least five off that here."

Isabelle laughed softly, quite happy to enjoy the lighthearted comment in this dire situation. Once he knew that Isabelle was comfortable, Sam refocused on the cuffs and his job to unlock them. Concentrating a bit more, Sam felt the familiar sensation of his powers responding to his command. It was a comforting feeling and soon his commands were answered in the form of a single strand of wire materializing from his outstretched finger. The metal strand snaked its way downward, growing longer until it disappeared into the key port and started wriggling around.

The wire twisted and Sam felt the little strand move the pins of the key port's lock into place. Sam hurried his work as he knew time was short, and soon he was rewarded in his efforts with the satisfying sound of the lock's tumbler unlocking with a click. The cuffs sprang open and the young girl's hands were freed at last.

"Ha, forty-nine seconds!" Sam cheered happily.

His celebration was cut off by Isabelle's arms wrapping around his torso and pulling him in for a hug. It was a surprise, but not unappreciated, so the wire conduit wrapped his arms around Isabelle in return. Their little victory hug would have to be cut short though, as they were still on a clock. So, reluctantly, Sam untangled himself from the embrace and looked Isabelle over once more.

"You gonna need a top off?" Sam asked, noticing the quiet girl's lack of usual energy.

Isabelle nodded her head and replied weakly, "Yes. They had me drain a lot of my source for the transport."

Sam nodded his understanding and stood up. After brushing off a bit of dirt from his bright, orange detainee garb, he offered a hand to help the younger girl up. She was a bit wobbly on her feet once she was up, but Sam was right there to support her. They moved carefully to the still blazing fire at the front of one of the transports when the engine blew up. The heat was intense, but the younger girl didn't seem at all bothered by it. In fact, the closer she got to the open flames, the more sure her footing became. Isabelle gestured that she could do the rest and Sam backed off a few steps to let her do her thing.

With hands outstretched toward the flames, the glows of the fire began to shift in an unnatural fashion toward Isabelle. The flames danced like they were in an unfelt wind and not long after, they began to be absorbed into the outstretched arms of the fire conduit reaching toward them. It was practically magical with the sight that Sam beheld, even if he'd seen it dozens of times before. Swirls of reds, oranges, and yellows moved up the young girl's arms, like the flames of gently burning candle and Isabelle as the wick.

With the colors and dance of the blaze being as distracting as they were, it was no wonder neither of the conduits took notice of the sight hidden behind the flames until they all but disappeared. Isabelle was the first to spot it and jumped back from the grizzly sight and yelped. Sam saw it next and was both shocked and nauseated by what he saw in the vehicle's front cabin.

The wire conduit heard his friend start to hyperventilate and swiftly blocked her view. A quick glance over his shoulder only made him feel more sick than his first look at the scene. It seemed that the person riding shotgun did not adhere to standard practice of wearing one's seatbelt while on the road. The force of the crash had ejected him from his seat and through the windshield. Since the APC was a military grade vehicle, the windshield itself was reinforced just like the rest of the vehicle. Thus, Sam could only guess how much force it would have taken to break such a heavy plate of plexiglass, but knew that that amount of force would be anything but survivable for a regular human. The blood splatters and misaligned limbs of the corpse only reinforced that notion.

The driver fared no better. With the APC having landed on the driver's side when it was flipped on its side, the guard's body was crushed under the crumpled side of the cabin. From Sam's angle, only one arm was visible from the body and was flopped lazily over the steering wheel. He didn't need to see the rest as the pieces of gore and pool of blood soaking the ground painted a bloody enough picture that he didn't want to think about it any longer than he already has.

With a shaky arm, Sam directed Isabelle away from the scene, "Don't think about it, Isabelle."

Even though Isabelle was practically on the verge of tears, she tried to stay strong. Sam admired her effort, but even he was feeling like he needed a minute after that. It wasn't like he didn't expect something like this to happen. Him and the rest of the group have had this escape planned out for weeks. There was just the unavoidable fact that no matter how carefully they planned, someone was going to end up hurt. They only wished it would have been a couple of D.U.P. troopers instead. That way, they wouldn't have had to feel as sorry for what had inevitably come.

They're d-dead, Sam," the fire conduit choked out, "Why?"

The single word question was easy enough for Sam to understand what the crying girl was asking. He was thinking the same thing too in his head. He had to remind himself of what Natie had told him when he brought the issue up, and her only response to what would ultimately haunt him for the rest of his days.

"It was necessary," Sam repeated the answer that he had to tell himself constantly, "I don't like it either, but if we hadn't done it, we would have lost our only chance to escape."

Isabelle knew it was the truth, but the knowledge that there was blood on her hands, made her want to curl up in a corner and cry.

"Hello~, how long are you two gonna hold us up?"

Sam ground his teeth and sheltered the distraught girl behind him as he turned to stare down the person that interrupted their moment. The cocky bastard, Lu, had his arms crossed over his chest and tapped his foot against the ground impatiently. The hate filled glare that Sam gave him seemed to do nothing and the other male just snorted in apathetic response.

"Lu is right," Natie returned from her own scavenging of the wrecked vehicles to stand by Lu, "We can't stay any longer. The transports are supposed to check in at the next rendezvous in just under half an hour. I hate to say this, but we're gonna have to put our personal shit on hold until we get out of here."

Sam hated when Natie was right about this kind of thing. He especially hated it when it was Lu who was right about the same thing in the first place. Isabelle was still trembling from the scene she witnessed earlier, but she slowly made her way out from behind Sam's sheltering arms. She took a deep breath and let it back out slowly. Her exercise worked, for the most part, and she gained a hesitant look of determination to hide most of her current distress.

Isabelle nodded and tried her best to hide the distress in her voice as she spoke, "O-ok, I'm ready."

Natie nodded and turned to the other two conduits to ask, "Anyone else need anything before we leave?"

Lu shook his head and replied in a cocky tone, "Asphalt's a bitch to convert, but I got what I needed."

A thumb jerked back to point over his shoulder and behind him to show the others the sizeable patch of the road now missing. Obviously used to restore the loud-mouthed asian's concrete powers.

Sam wanted to make another biting comment, but time was running out. So instead he ran back to the second destroyed vehicle, doing his absolute best to ignore the grizzly sight in the front cabin. There was a spool of braided cable with a hook attached to the front bumper that made up the vehicle's forward emergency tow line. What was left of Sam diminished reserves of wire answered his call and shot out from his outstretched hands. The ends of his wires connected with those from the tow cable's and the spool shuttered. Sam pulled his arms back, and with them, the tow cable unraveled from the spool and unbraided itself until it was swiftly absorbed by the wire conduit, restoring his power to full.

Once the spool no longer had any more wire to give and spun uselessly on the front bumper's hinge, Sam raced back to the others and gave them a silent nod of his readiness.

"Alright," Natie said as she looked over her fellow fugitives, "The guards' GPS put us at the eastern part of Arkansas, and their rendezvous is to the west. We'll head east and away from the rendezvous until we cross the state. After that, that's up to you all. For now, let's get moving."

Four beings with incredible, destructive powers took off on foot in the direction opposite of the sun's motion. They may still be fugitives of the law, and a strong sense of uncertainty for what lies ahead scared them, but for the first time in years, they couldn't help but savor this sense of freedom that they had been longing for when the only world they were allowed to have was encased in concrete.


	3. Chapter 3

_**LOCATION: 68 MILES FROM TENNESSEE BORDER**_

 _ **TIME: 3:44 PM**_

The Four fugitives fled as fast as they could from the scene of the crash. Taking great care to avoid any roads or any direction that looked like it led to somewhere inhabited. They also weren't about to risk leaving a trail by using their powers either. A nice long streak of charred woods or pillars of concrete would have been about as subtle as hanging a flashing neon sign saying 'They went that way'. So, they kept running, never looking back and with each foot fall they put between themselves and the wrecked transports, the more elated they each became about their newfound freedom.

The trek was long and monotonous, but they didn't slow down until they all felt like they put a hundred miles between them and the crash site. It's funny since they only made it about a couple dozen, but still the sentiment was enjoyed.

"Ok, _fearless leader._ Where do we go now," Lu spoke up after catching his breath.

The other two conduits turned to Natie with equally curious expressions. The electric conduit didn't like how she had become the de facto leader, but it was her plan and her persistence that got the others on board in the first place. In all actuality, she hadn't expected the others to follow her this far. She had expected at least Sam or Lu to make their own breaks in a different direction once they were all free. Yet, she wasn't about to let them all down just yet.

Her reply was swiftly cut off by a horrible growling, the likes of which sounding like it came from a crazed animal. Everyone turned toward the source of the feral noise and gave the offending source a indifferent frown. The growling sounded again and Sam held his hands up defensively, a bashful smile on his face. Lu gave a snort of cynical laughter while Natie groaned and shook her head into the palm of her hand.

Sam scowled defiantly as he defended himself, "Give me a break! I was nervous about the whole escape thing and barely ate breakfast! Plus, you all know that the stuff they served us back there is worse than airline food."

Natie unfold her arms and walked straight up to Sam. Sam already knew what was coming and just braced as the electric conduit gave him a light, but swift, smack to the back of the head. She turned back around to face the other two and sighed.

"Sam does bring up a good point though," Natie spoke up to the rest of the group, "We're not getting meals brought to us anymore. We have to find our own food. Sam, I know what you're going to say, and shut up. We're not drinking our own piss like Bear Grylls."

The wire conduit put his hand down and turned away in indignation. Natie had actually been pondering about this particular predicament ever since they escaped. A few ideas of what they could do came to mind, but from the years that she had gotten to know her friends, none of them were wilderness survival experts. Even if Sam swore up and down that his knowledge of 'Man vs Wild' was good enough. In the end, only one idea really stood out to her that they could thesiably use. She didn't like it, if only for the fact that it would perpetuate the stereotype they were trying to avoid.

Natie closed her eyes and sat down on the dew soaked ground among the wooded terrain. The others watched and waited, knowing that they would have their questions answered in a few moments. The electric conduit cleared her mind and focused. The lack of any electrical sources in their surrounding had been making her anxious, but she had kept track of where they had been heading and anything that was in between. She reached deep within herself and felt the electrical energy that was source of her powers stir. A light blue haze surrounded the young woman as she pushed more energy into what she was doing. As the light grew brighter, the haze flashed white and then pulsed outward. The pulse flew off and pinged off any source of electrical energy, like a form of echolocation.

The first thing Natie saw through this sixth sense were her friend, silhouetted in the same light blue energy as her pulse. Next came the surrounding wildlife. There were a couple of deer, some birds in the tree she couldn't identify with the sense alone, and finally a couple of small rodent like creatures that had made burrows that she could see through the ground. Though, the things she was looking for took longer to detect and only registered as hazy blue shapes in the distance. Vehicles, by what Natie could tell, zipped by along the highway that she had been following parallel to on their trek. She smiled knowing that where there were highways, there would be gas stations. To that end, if there were gas stations, then inevitably, there would be food.

Natie stood back up and swiped the dead leaves of the underbrush off her clothes then pointed off in a direction, "Ok, the highway is about two miles in that direction. We'll get close and follow it until we find a gas station."

"Natie, we're not cars, and I'm not about to chug some gasoline to find out," Lu piped up with a condescending look on his face.

"You idiot," Sam busted out laughing at the absurd statement, "Have you never taken a cross country trip?"

"What was that, asshat?" Lu shot back, even if having never left his hometown before had nothing to do with it.

Isabelle put herself between the two guys who looked like they were about to get into a fight and pleaded, "Guys, please! This isn't the time to be fighting each other. Lu, Natie only meant that highway gas stations have all kinds of food from snacks to packaged sandwiches and other stuff besides just the pumps."

Sam looked off into space with a longing expression and muttered mostly to himself, "Oh god, I could kill for a gas station burrito. I haven't had one in years."

Seeing how everyone looked to be onboard for the plan, for the most part, Natie pushed past the others and took the lead once more. The others followed and kept pace with the electric conduit's brisk jog toward their next goal.

-o0o-

The group of fugitive conduits hid within the underbrush across from the gas station on the other side of the highway. It seemed that this particular stretch of road was sparsely used, whether out of this particular time of the year or just because of how small the road and accompanying gas station was. Either way, it allowed the four conduits to spy on the near deserted gas station without fear of wondering eyes from passing cars. At the moment, there were only four cars at the building. One currently at a gas pump with a person getting her car gassed up for whatever trip or commute she was making. The other three were parked in front of the main building, but lacked any indication of their owners being present. More than likely, they were inside getting whatever it was they needed to make their drive less monotonous.

Natie held up her hand and waited until she saw the woman at the gas pump get into her car and pull out of the station altogether. Once she was sure that the woman would have no reason to look back, Natie waved for her fellow escapees to cross the stretch of road and make their way up to the gas station. They made it safely and with no one to spare a glance toward them to question their odd behavior. Of course, that was only one thing that they had to worry about. They still had the issue of their 'detainee' uniforms to deal with and how obviously they would stick out with them on. Though, having nothing to change into, the group was forced to turn the clothes they wore inside out to hide the big, black, and incriminating labels all over them. Isabelle even suggested that they tie the over shirt around their waists to look less conspicuous. Granted, it wasn't a bad idea, but a group of four 'incognito' fugitives wearing nothing but bright, orange pants, plain white undershirts, and orange over shirts tied around their waists was far from inconspicuous.

Natie, being at the front, nearly jumped at the welcome chime as she opened the door to the gas station's main building. She expected at any moment that a fireteam of heavily armed D.U.P. troopers to burst out of nowhere to haul them all in. Though, when all she received was what she could only assume was the newest hit pop playlist playing over the building's PA system, she tried to relax her nerves.

It had been a while, but Natie remembered what a gas station store looked like vaguely. In front of her was the obvious 'tourist isle'. Shelves of little knick-knacks and trinkets that were only there to make a quick buck off the suckers who bought the crap. To her left, there were more isles, the tops of which she could see full of snacks, car accessories, and other little things one might need to take on the road. Beyond that was a small freezer section. Stuffed with soft drinks and the world's smallest selection of terrible frozen dinners.

On the right side of the store, the front counter with all the tobacco products and lotto tickets, was manned by a husky looking fellow. His receding hairline was haphazardly covered by longer strands of dirty blonde hair, but did nothing to truly hide his male pattern baldness. His expression was gruff looking and when he and Natie caught each other's eyes, his posture tensed. She was afraid he might try something, but his lack of initiative led the electric conduit to believe that she was either being paranoid or that the older man was just suspicious of anyone that came into his store. Using every ounce of her willpower, she turned away slowly and kept her own posture and expression as neutral as possible.

She slipped further into the store to allow the rest of the crew to enter, only speaking just above a whisper so only they could hear, "Move into position and wait for the signal."

She received a series of nods and grunts of acknowledgement and watched as the group spread throughout the gas station store. They were all nervous and it showed, but years of discipline kept them from panicking and bolstered their resolve for what they were about to do. Sam and Isabelle moved to the back, pretending to browse through the magazine racks. Lu took to the snack isles, placing himself strategically near the center of the store. And within arms reach of of everything in the shelves.

The plan was simple; create some distracting chaos, grab everything they could that looked edible, and then bolt out the store before anyone knew what was going on. As the four gave each other quick looks to show their readiness, Natie walked up to front with the old man and pay counter. He gave her a look that reeked of weariness and discontent. The electric conduit did her best to look as innocent as possible, but the gesture seemed to fall short with another eye narrow from the old clerk.

Natie was about to move off to the side, which was closer to the counter shelves of gum and candy when something she heard caught her attention. Next to the register in front of the gas station clerk sat an old looking ten inch tv. The man had been in the middle of watching something when a series of alert tones came from the tv's speakers. Out of the corner of Natie's eye, she watched as the screen turned from its regular programming to an emergency broadcast.

The low and monotone voice of the news anchor droned on as he spoke, "We interrupt your broadcast to bring you an emergency bulletin. At approximately three fifteen today, a U.S. army convoy was thrown off the road, resulting in a catastrophic wreck just off the I-40. The convoy was making a prisoner transport of four bio-terrorists to a secure military detainment facility, following the scheduled decommission of the Department of Unified Protection, when the vehicles of the convoy were violently thrown off the road." All the color drained out from Natie's face, leaving her as pale as a ghost as she listened in on the report. "Reports suggests that the bio-terrorists were indeed the cause of the convoy's destruction, and that they had fled the scene before army reinforcements could arrive to contain the situation. Citizens in the north-east territories of Arkansas are advised to stay indoors as these bio-terrorists are extremely dangerous. The military is also asking for the public's cooperation for any information in regards to the bio-terrorists' location that will lead to their recapture. Details are posted on screen of these four bio-terrorists and an emergency hotline at which individuals can report any information they have on their whereabouts."

Natie had completely tuned out the rest of the reporter's coverage in favor of looking at what was on the screen of the television itself. Just like that, there they were. Lu, Sam, Isabelle, and herself with their D.U.P. detainee profile pictures now plastered all over the screen. Natie's insides twisted up into knots so tight, she thought she was going to puke. A twitch of movement caught the electric conduit's attention out of the corner of her eye. The old man of a store clerk stared directly at her as he began to reach slowly under the counter. The old man's face was caught somewhere between a look of outright panic and disgust. Natie slowly slid her hand along the outside of the counter to where the lotto tickets were being displayed under a bright, fluorescent tube light just below the counter's surface. For a split second, Natie hoped that the old man was merely reaching down to pick up something he might have dropped, or scratch an itch on his leg, or some other seemingly innocent task. That thought died in an instant when she heard the familiar sound of a gun getting cocked beneath the counter.

"Down!" Natie cried out as she grabbed the corner of the glass case to the lotto tickets.

The whole place erupted into chaos after that. Natie charged her hand full of electrical energy and pumped it all into the flourescent bulb in the lotto ticket case. The surge passed through the bulb and into the rest of the building's circuitry until all the lights within the little gas station store exploded in bright flashes of light. The light bulbs, turned miniature flashbangs, blinded anyone who was unfortunate enough to not cover their eyes, which included the old clerk behind the counter. A gunshot rang out and Natie felt a sharp pain in her shoulder, but ignored it. The clerk, and the rest of the store's patrons, screamed in panic in their disorientation while trying to recover from their blindness. In that time, there was great deal of hurried scuffling, shouting, and panicked running as Natie and the rest of the fugitive conduits grabbed everything they could in their arms from the food shelves and ran for the exit.

The four conduits bolted across the gas station pumping stations and heard a few more gunshots ring out behind them. None of them turned around and they swiftly made it back across the highway to the relative safety of the woodlands. Though, they didn't stop there. With Natie leading the way, they ran as fast as they could while carrying their spoils deeper into the obstructing foliage and continued running. They ran and ran, longer than any of them had during one of their training sessions within the concrete prison. They kept going even when they felt like their legs were going to fall off. It was nearly half an hour before all of them dropped to the ground, panting from exhaustion.

For a while, all any of them could hear was the frantic beating of their own hearts and the ragged breathing they all had from trying to recover. As the adrenaline slowly began to wear off and they all had a few minutes to catch their breaths, they heard a new sound. It started off as a light chuckle, but it then developed into something more. Natie, Sam, and Isabelle turned to see a smiling, cackling Lu lying on the ground, laughing his heart out. The sensation became infectious and soon Isabelle was giggling. Natie and Sam soon joined in, and the once silent forest was soon filled with uproaring laughter.

"Did you see that, shit?!" Lu choked out between breaths of his laughing fit.

"Fuck yeah!" Sam chimed in, "That was awesome!"

Isabelle would have put it in a more milder tone, but nodded in agreement that what ended up happening was a bit funny when she thought about it.

Lu had to calm down a bit before he spoke again, "A-and that guy at the counter, oh my god! Did you hear what he said? 'Get out of my store you damn, bio-terrorists!'. Fuckin' priceless!"

At that, Natie's laughter died down until she had to turn away from the group to hide her pained expression. She felt someone brush up beside her and turned to see the sympathetic smile of her friend, Isabelle, next to her.

In a whisper that only the two of them could hear, Isabelle asked the obvious, "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," Natie answered plainly, "Got shot in the shoulder, but that's already healed."

Isabelle already knew the tone that Natie was using and brought her hand up to squeeze on the electric conduit's shoulder. A silent reassurance that Natie understood as, 'They can talk later'. The electric conduit reached up and patted Isabelle's hand with her own and gave her a sad smile, 'thanks'. When the two rejoined the others back around the unorganized circle, Lu was still laughing up a storm while Sam gave Natie his own reassuring nod of understanding to the situation. Natie appreciated the gesture and took a moment to collect herself before putting on her game face.

"Alright," Natie called out for everyone's attention, "The feds are probably gonna hear about that little stunt we pulled, but we did put quite a bit of distance between us and them for now." Natie looked up to the sky and noticed that the sun was beginning its final crawl toward the horizon, leaving roughly an hour or two before nightfall. "Let's set up here and divy up the food for now."

"Oh god, finally! I'm starving," Sam praised.

The four dragged their spoils from where they dropped them to the center of their circle and looked over everything that they had. It seemed like they were lucky in that they had gotten quite the haul from their little 'snatch-n-run'. There were granola bars, bags of chips, poptarts, a few assorted canned goods, some snack boxes, a couple bottles of water and fruit drinks, and a handful of candy bars. It seemed that Lu and Sam had pilfered the most out of the combined effort, having the advantage to make basket like objects to carry a larger haul out of wire and concrete respectively. The four argued and haggled over who would get what, but in the end, they were all satisfied with how it was finally divided up. They dug in voraciously, but none of them cared for what people considered proper table manners.

Night was quickly approaching as the group of wayward conduits finished off their respective meals. The lack of federal pursuit was encouraging in that Natie felt it was safe enough to set up a campsite where they were for the night. Sam and Natie went out to the surrounding woodland to gather up anything dry enough to burn, while Lu and Isabelle set up the fire pit. It was a modest affair. Lu created a concrete basin and Isabelle cleared the surrounding foliage just as Sam and Natie returned, each with a bundle of wood. Isabelle lit the pit up with a spray of fire from her fingers once a shallow pile of sticks was built in the concrete basin. Some may consider a fire conduit to be cheating when it came to wilderness survival, but no one was complaining within this little group.

The four conduits huddled together in a circle around the crackling fire, periodically feeding the flames with fresh fuel when they needed. They didn't have much to talk about and none of them were really into the campfire stories, but they enjoyed the relative calmness of the outdoors that they had been denied for so long with content silence. The night was slowly settling in and it seemed like they were competing to see who would show the first signs of tiredness on their first day as free men and women.

Just as the sun made its full descent over the horizon and the world was plunged into shadows, Natie cleared her throat to get everyone's attention, "Listen, we may have finally escaped the D.U.P. and the government's control, but we can't let our guards down yet. They're out there looking for us, and I don't know about you, but I don't want to end up getting hauled back to Curdan Cay in my sleep. In any case, I think we should take turns keeping watch for tonight."

Sam groaned in a sarcastic manner, "Can't we put up a sign saying 'Do not disturb the sleeping conduits'?"

"Yeah, don't you know Sammy over here needs his beauty sleep," Lu remarked with a snort of laughter.

Sam gave the concrete conduit a nasty glare before getting a devious smirk, "Of course I do. Everyone does, but you'd probably need a nice long coma to fix that ugly mug of yours."

Shards of concrete surrounded Lu forearms as he jumped to his feet. Sam got up too, but remained low to the ground to hopefully slip under Lu's guard if he charged.

"Yeah, well I don't need charm to beat your face in, asshole," Lu threatened with a raised fist full of concrete.

Sam smirk grew as he knew what to say next, "You know what, your right, but I misspoke. There ain't enough hours of sleep you could get to fix that lump of ugly you call a face on ya."

Sam called it perfectly. Lu charged head-on with a warcry to land a haymaker of punch on his face. Sam had initially planned to duck under the blow and slip under Lu's left arm toward the same side that he constantly left open. After which, he would have ensnared the concrete conduit in a web of wires to throw him over his own shoulder and pin him while being careful to avoid any concrete shrapnel the other conduit would spray. At least, that was the plan until he suddenly found himself pinned to the ground himself by electrical restraints after being thrown like a ragdoll. Lu was right beside him, face down in the dirt, in a similar situation with a smug looking Natie standing over top of them both and brushing her hands off against each other.

"Ah, come on, Natie," Sam pleaded innocently, "We were just having a little fun~."

Natie gave the wire conduit a withering glare and Sam instantly clammed up. Lu was still struggling against his bindings, but Natie knew he wasn't going anywhere for a while.

Natie crouched down next to the nervously grinning wire conduit and gave him her own smirk, "Just for that, you're on first watch."

Natie snapped her fingers and a spark jumped from her fingers and down to the glowing restraints, to which they disappeared in an instant.

"You're the boss," Sam said and gave her a mock salute as he got back up.

"Hey, aren't you forgetting someone?" Lu grumbled from his place on the ground.

"No," Natie answered as she settled into a spot on the other side of fire, "You need time to cool off, and I don't want to stay up all night just to keep you two from killing each other. The restraints last an hour. So, goodnight."

"What the fuck?!" Lu tried one last time to break free before giving up and getting as comfortable as he could in his position.

Isabelle giggled as she too began to settle into her spot closest to the fire to go to sleep, "I'll take the next watch if no one minds."

Everyone gave their agreement to the arrangement, and they even came to the agreement that Lu would take the third watch while Natie would have the last.

"Good night, everyone," Isabelle muttered between her yawns, "and sleep well."

"You too, Isabelle," Sam called from his spot at the edge of the campfire's light as he started his watch out into the calming darkness of the woods, "You too, Natie… and I guess Lu as well."

"Fuck you!"

The woodland fell into a comfortable silence after that, but Natie was having trouble falling asleep. She turned onto her side so she was facing the fire. Her thoughts turned to everything that had happened in just the last twelve hours. She remembered when they were first loaded into the army transports back at Curdan Cay. How the snow crunched under her shoes from that snow covered prison and how anxious she felt when the opportunity that they had been waiting for was within their grasp. How they stepped up and into those transports, bidding the hellhole that they had been locked up in for years, goodbye. How the first set of transports had brought them down the mountain that the prison was based upon to an airstrip, and the four conduits had been loaded onto a cargo plane. How the flight was long and tedious as the army personnel never let them so much as flinch without drawing a line of fire on them after. Finally, leading into the cargo plane landing in Arkansas on a secluded airstrip as scheduled and the four being loaded onto another set of land transports. That would have been the final stretch before they arrived at their new detainment facility, were it not for the conduits' own plans.

The escape hadn't gone exactly as planned, but Natie was thankful for the soldier who lost his grip on his rifle long enough for her to swipe it away and fumble around with it until she could shoot her cuffs off. Had she failed, she didn't even want to think about what would have become of them all. Natie tried shaking the morbid thought away and curled in on herself a little tighter. The ground was uncomfortable, her over shirt she substituted for a pillow was flat, but in the end, she thought about how lucky she and her friends were to finally feel free after so long. She watched the flames from the fire flicker and crackle until the hypnotic view slowly lulled her to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

_**LOCATION: 53 MILES FROM TENNESSEE BORDER**_

 _ **TIME: 5:22 AM**_

Natie awoke with a start and instantly enshrouded her arms in the crackling, blue streams of her electricity. It only took her a second to send out a pulse of electrical energy and she was instantly aware of everything around her that contained an electrical signature. The natural wildlife of the woodlands gleamed with a bluish haze, along with three distinctive humanoid figures beside her. One in particular was closer than the others, and the electric conduit pointed an electrically charged arm in its direction. In the sputtering light of her power and the dying embers of their campfire, she stared into the face of the half-asian man that went by the name of Lu.

Her heart began to slow down as her groggy mind caught up with the world around her. Lu, who had been crouching beside her, held a three foot long stick in one hand and seemed to have used it as a means to wake up the sleeping conduit. He wore an annoyed look on his face as he tossed the disposable piece of wood over his shoulder and into some undergrowth. With the same hand, he tenderly stroked his opposing arm and issued a hiss of pain. An odd reaction by Natie's observation.

"'Bout time you woke up," The concrete conduit hissed in irritation, "It's your turn to take watch."

With having turned over his position to the slowly rising Natie, he headed for the other side of the dying fire and laid down to catch what little sleep he could.

"Did you have to poke me with a stick?" Natie asked in an equal amount of annoyance having put two and two together as to how she was woken up.

The concrete conduit barely lifted his head as he grumbled in reply, "Yeah, right. Like I want to be the first thing you zap when you wake up. Not like it helped. Still clipped me in the arm, bitch."

That would explain why his arm seemed to have been slightly charred when Natie saw him as she first woke up. She left it alone though, seeing as it was apparently her fault in reflexively shooting him when he woke her up. Natie carried on with her morning routine and yawned while stretching out her stiff limbs. She never thought she'd say this, but she did kind of miss the use of her bed back in Curdan Cay. Of course, with every other memory she had of that god forsaken place, a single night sleeping on the dirt seemed insignificant in comparison. She quickly banished the encroaching thoughts to better focus on herself and the tasks she needed to do.

Satisfying pops echoed from her joints as she got up and stretched some more. The action made her sigh in contentment as the stiffness in her body fell away with each pop. Natie's mind became increasingly more awake and alert, so she decided to take stock of her surroundings to help it along its final boot up. The woodlands were still dark as the sun had yet to breach the horizon. There she stood on the west side of their little campfire that was now down to the blackened bits of used up firewood and a small pile of ash.

Just on the opposite side was Lu, scratching at his thigh, no doubt trying to settle in for whatever sleep he could get in before the sun arose. To Natie's left, Isabelle still slept, curled up in her spot that she had claimed the night before right next to the fire pit. She seemed peaceful and content, if her light rise and fall of her chest was any indicator. It also seemed that a lock of her auburn colored hair had fell in front of her face, but it didn't seem to bother her, so Natie left it alone. On the opposite side of Isabelle and the fire pit, Sam was fast asleep on his back. He had also taken off his orange overshirt to use as a makeshift pillow and had his limbs sprawled out all over the place. Just like him too, to seem so casual to the world around him, even while he slept.

Seeing how all of her fellow escapees were still safe and accounted for, Natie opted to check the rest of the surrounding area with another sonar pulse. With her mind now fully awake, she was able to clearly tell what everything was within the woods, and more importantly, if they were potentially a threat or incoming capture squad from the D.U.P.. Luckily for her, that last fear was unfounded and nothing but the surrounding wildlife and her three fellow escapees occupied these woods. Pleased by this prospect, she dusted off the light bit of dirt that accumulated on her clothes from the night before and looked for something to do to keep her mind occupied.

Her stomach growling gave her the perfect idea and excuse and she shuffled quietly over to the food stash just behind Isabelle at the edge of their little camping ground. Natie sifted through the remains of the pile and picked out something light to snack on so she could leave enough for the rest when they awoke. In her little pilfering, she selected two granola bars, a bottle of water, and a stick of beef jerky. Natie sooned returned to her spot that she used to sleep in and sat down to eat her meager breakfast. It also gave her time to think.

It almost seemed surreal with what she and her fellow escapees had done not twenty-four hours ago. They had successfully escaped from the custody of both the D.U.P. and the military that had taken over their detainment transfer. They may have hit a stumbling block along the way with that gas station, but they had evaded getting into a confrontation with normal humans and presumably given the authorities the slip again. Now, with almost a full day of freedom under their belts, they only had the rest of their lives to continue said freedom however they chose.

Although, that 'freedom' would still be heavily limited with having to always watch their backs, avoid being recognized, and curbing the use of their powers to keep from drawing suspicion. That last thought certainly gave the electric conduit a consideration for pause. She looked at her one hand that was not holding the bottle of water and stared. Her free hand lit up with the sparks of electricity jumping between her fingertips at her command. It was somewhat discouraging, knowing that she could no longer be considered 'normal' because of what she was.

It wasn't her fault that this curse was thrust upon her without her consent. It seemed wholly unfair that she had no metaphorical control over this state of being. Sure, with all the training she was given back in Curdan Cay, she could fry a target at thirty yards away with over five-thousand volts of electricity per shot. She could rain down bolts of lightning to decimate all kinds of artillery and equipment. Her control over her power allowed her to go toe-to-toe with her peers and win on a regular basis, and yet. All of that just reinforced the notion that her powers were unnatural; _she_ was unnatural.

Natie shook her head to clear the discouraging thoughts that invaded her mind. Right now was not the time to become existential. Her fellow escapees were relying on her to keep a watch over them from danger while they rested. With that in mind, Natie went back to concentrating on surveying the area and keeping an eye out for any danger. She idly played with whatever she could pick up from the woodland grounds to keep herself occupied while she was on watch. Eventually, the sky shifted from a canvas of blackened ink and dots of light from the stars, to the bleeding red and orange hues of the rising sun.

The electric conduit watched as the sky slowly turned brighter and bluer as the night made way for the day. With it, streaks of pure sunlight pierced through the gaps in the trees and brought more light into the makeshift campsite. Some of those rays of sun were just sneaky enough to find their way straight into the still slumbering conduits' faces and caused them to stir. The other female conduit in their group was the first to rise. Relishing in the warm glow of the sun as it hit her body. She sat up and stretched much in the same manner as Natie and turned to see said companion smiling fondly back at her.

"Good morning, Natie," Isabelle warmly greeted.

Natie only nodded with a smile, then awaited the other two that had yet to rise. She may have been waiting for while, seeing as Sam had turned his back to the sun and tucked the sleeve of his shirt pillow over his eyes in a desperate attempt to sleep in just a few more minutes. Lu wasn't much better. The concrete conduit had erected a concrete barrier that took on the shape of a tent to act as solid curtain against the offending light source. The only things still visible from Natie's view were his feet as the sound of light snoring issued from the shelter.

"God dammit, guys!" Natie growled angrily, "You know we don't have time for this!"

All she got in response was the rough mumblings of the wire conduit that sounded a little something like, 'five more minutes'. Lu, on the other hand remained snoozing away, blissfully ignoring the electric conduit's outburst. Said conduit had just about enough of this and soon began to summon up her power. The familiar aura of blue lightning arced across her forearms and she pointed each balled up fist at a target. A quick pulse shot off a bolt of the electrical energy and struck her intended targets.

Sam jolted upright as the bolt struck his back, causing him to yelp in pain and babble incoherently about alien probes. Although not being able to see his full reaction, the others heard a distinct thud and a string of obscenities issuing from the inside of the concrete tent, presumably from when Lu cracked his head against the construct as he tried to jump up. The satisfying responses Natie got made her smile and she dusted off her hands and went over to the food pile to pick up another bottle of water.

"The fuckin' hell is your problem, bitch?!" Lu crawled out from the shelter of his tent whilst rubbing a spot on his forehead.

Natie frowned and pointed her electrified arm in the other conduit's direction, "You wanna' try and rephrase that?"

Isabelle could only watch as their little alliance seemed to be falling apart at the seams. Sure, she wasn't exactly fond of Lu and his personality, but she didn't want to see him or any of her friends come to blows over something so small. Especially when they were supposed to be working together to continue their escape for freedom. Shards of concrete emerged from Lu's hands and began to circle lazily around his arms, while more arcs of blue lightning did the same with Natie's. It seemed that this was only going to end one way, and there was nothing for the poor fire conduit could do to stop it.

Then suddenly, the firepit erupted back to life with a shining brilliance, distracting everyone in the campsite. The gout of flames that had caused it led back to the obvious source and the fire conduit's outstretched arm. Already on her feet, she hopped between the two already at a standoff and thrust both arms out toward them with hands facing out in a stopping gesture. She looked scared, but not for her safety, for her friends'.

"Please, just stop this!" Isabelle pleaded from the center, "We're supposed to be working together, not jumping at each other's' throats!"

Surprised to hear such a fearless tone in their usually soft-spoken companion made the two other conduits pause, oddly placated by her words.

Jumping at the chance to ride the momentum, Isabelle went on to speak, "Natie, you told us that we'd escape together, because it would take all of us to make it out alive. And Lu, I know it's frustrating, and I know we all don't usually get along, but for us to keep staying that one step ahead of the D.U.P., we have to. They've already underestimated us by letting us escape, but if they find us, or worse capture us, we may never have this chance again. All I'm asking for now, is if we can work together a little longer. Just until we find a way to flee somewhere where they can't find us. Isn't that why we planned this whole thing in the first place?"

The two conduits that started the standoff went between looking at each other and the third conduit between them holding out her hands out to either side to block them. The tension built as the time around them in the woodland seemed to crawl to a standstill with the conduits sizing each other up. The last bits of wood that could produce an ember within the firepit finally died out and left nothing but the crumbling bits of ash to join the rest of pile at the bottom.

Finally, it was Natie to stand down first. Letting out an exasperated sigh and letting the electrical energy around her body dissipate into nothing.

"Fine. You're right," Natie admitted begrudgingly, "We can't waste our time or energy starting a fight here. Someone would probably see us anyways."

A collective sigh from Isabelle and Sam escaped them as the situation steadily defused. Lu still looked like he wanted to kick someone's ass, but settled on grumbling under his breath and stomping off toward the food pile to find his own breakfast. Sam got up from his spot to slink up beside the fire conduit. He looked proudly upon the one that successfully defused the situation before it got out of hand. Noticing the extra presence beside her, Isabelle looked up to find the smiling visage of the wire conduit over her shoulder.

Putting an arm around her, Sam hummed and gave a few encouraging words, "Well look who's the little diplomat over here. Seriously though, good job. I honestly wouldn't have been able to put a stop to those two. Probably would ended looking like a concrete pin cushion and like I got hit with an oversized bug zapper."

She looked up to the wire conduit and gave him an appreciative smile, "Thanks, Sam. I-I just wanted to keep them from fighting is all."

"Don't worry about it," the wire conduit replied with a confident grin, "you handled it well. Especially with Lu. Lu's always looking to start shit, er, 'trouble'."

As if right on cue, said concrete conduit roared angrily and turned on the others while tossing a crumpled up piece of foil on the ground in front of him.

"Ok, which one of you assholes ate the last of the poptarts?!"

Sam looked confused until he remembered something and just couldn't help but get a devious smirk on his face. It was pretty late in the night when Sam took his turn to be on watch, which eventually made him hungry. Seems that his choice of a midnight snack didn't go unnoticed.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Were you saving those?" Sam asked in smug tone.

Lu turned his angry glare on the one that spoke up and saw the conniving expression on the wire conduit's face. The sudden shift in the tension was enough to make Isabelle sigh. It seems her efforts to prevent a confrontation had been in vain.

Sam continued to goad the concrete conduit, regardless of Isabelle's heedings, "Dang, probably should've put your name on them then."

Stomping right up to the wire conduit, Lu ground his teeth in anger, "You better be joking, or you're gonna be eating concrete here really quick!"

The shards of concrete splinters that he had earlier were back, and they looked even sharper due to their possessor's spike in emotion. Sam stood defiantly against the fuming conduit and began wrapping wires around his fists like a pair of brass knuckles for the inevitable fight.

"Would it help if I said that their contribution went to a worthy cause of keeping me company during my watch last night?" Sam asked snidely.

Lu cocked his fist back, preparing to riddle his rival full of shards while Sam jumped back into a battle stance. All hell would have broken loose were it not for a bolt of lightning shooting between the two.

"Both of you, shut the fuck up!" Natie shouted, still keeping her arm outstretched and toward them.

It wasn't her words that got them to do as she told however. Rather her expression of concern and the faint, yet distinguishable, sound of alarm in her voice. As much as they wanted to finish what they started, their companion's demeanor gave them cause for a momentary ceasefire. Natie turned to look off into the distance of a seemingly random direction and stood in silence. The woodland was nearly silent apart from the occasional breeze that rustled the leaves on the tree limbs above.

The seconds drug on for what felt like hours and the tension in the air only got higher. Then, off in the distance, there was an echo. It was faint and they all almost missed it. It sounded like a rumble, but more mechanical, and it appeared to be moving from one direction to the other. It only took a few seconds more for each of the conduits to recognize the distinct, dreadful sound. Their expressions all grew equally pale and panic gripped their minds as the sound of the helicopter grew steadily closer.

Natie's training kicked in and she began issuing clipped orders, "Lu, the firepit! Scatter the ashes and get rid of the rest. Isabelle, the trash. Burn it, but careful not to overdo it. Sam, gather up our shit. Wire slings for everyone to even out the load."

No one argued and set about their tasks in great haste. The swooping echo of the chopper was getting closer and Natie worried that they would be spotted. Luckily, those fears never came to pass, as the other members of the group rapidly cleaned up. As they regrouped around the rugged remains of their firepit, Sam passed the wire slings of items to everyone of everything they had yet to eat. They're attention soon turned to their de facto leader and awaited their next course of action.

It wasn't her intention to take charge like this, this was all of their plan after all, but she sucked it up regardless and exuded her best air of confidence. Listening to the approaching chopper, Natie judged the aerial vehicle to still be a few miles off. What was even better, was with its closer proximity, she was able to discern a new fact about this helicopter.

"It's not D.U.P. by the sound of it, which means that it's the army heading the search. So, we get the fuck out of here, further east and away from their search grid. They're probably expecting to see a trail to easily track, so no powers unless they catch up. If we're lucky, their initial search area will be small enough that we'll slip by without them even noticing unless one of us lights up."

"You mean, if you or Isabelle light up like a fourth of July display," Sam chimed in sarcasticlly, but immediately flinched from the withering glare he received from their leader, "Right, bad time. Carry on."

Satisfied with the others' collective silence and taking it as their agreement to the plan. Natie turned on her heel and beckoned the others to follow her, "No time to lose, let's go!"

-o0o-

 _ **LOCATION: 10 MILES FROM TENNESSE BORDER; i-40 HIGHWAY**_

 _ **TIME: 8:45 AM**_

"Shit! Watch out for the fucking barrier!"

"Shut the fuck up, Lu!"

"Uh, guys? Five-oh's picked up another friend for the chase… oh, make that two friends. Heh, I kinda wish that theme from 'COPS' was playing right now."

"Sam, not the time!"

Natie was hectically splitting her concentration between the events playing out before her. It would have been easier if a certain pair of male conduits would stop pestering her as she drove. Not to mention the half dozen state police cruisers that were tailing them as they sped down the highway.

Their hasty retreat from the search helicopter back in the woodlands had certainly not been uneventful. They ran as fast as they could from the ominous sound, always doing their best to stick together. Even with their enhanced strength and stamina, the sound of impending discovery grew steadily closer. Natie knew it was only a matter of time before the search party would be upon them. So, she made a decision.

Urging the others to follow her lead, she led the group back toward the highway where she hoped to enact her new plan. It seemed that luck decided to smile upon them as the next time she issued a sonar pulse, Natie felt the thrum of large, unmoving vehicles bounce back against her senses in the distance. The team of conduits just happened to come across a parking area for a local communal campsite. The sight of numerous cars, SUV's, and trucks filled the electric conduit with relief as she directed the others toward them.

They all kept as low and as out of sight as possible from the one or two people still in the area, gauging the best route to take through the maze of vehicles. Stealthily passing from car to car until they were deep into the pool of motor vehicles, they all ducked behind a bright red SUV as their 'leader' began to inspect it. She chose this particular vehicle on account of how blocked they were from view by the surrounding automobiles and it was the only one with a spacious interior. It also helped that not a soul inhabited said SUV, which made what she was about to do less reprehensible in her eyes. Calling Sam forward, she instructed the wire conduit pick the lock of the car door to unlock it. Understandably, he was a bit hesitant to do such a thing. Citing that they didn't need to add even more felonies like grand theft auto to their list of crimes. Yet, the argument boiled down to him being overruled on the grounds that they could do this and escape, or wait for the chopper to catch up to them. Sam had no problems in doing what he was told after that ultimatum, and worked on getting the SUV door unlocked with a couple of wires he produced from his fingers. His training in such a skill was a pleasant boon and seemed appropriate for the situation, which was surprising on why an organization like the D.U.P. would even teach him something like this. That thought had to be put on hold as he and the rest of the conduits failed to account for the fact that breaking into a locked car would trigger its alarm. A myriad of hushed curses and other choice words were thrown about to see who would take the blame on this one, but there wasn't enough time.

With no time to argue, the four piled into the vehicle with Natie taking the wheel. Without even thinking, she placed her hands on the wheel and sent a surge of electricity through the SUV, which luckily both shut off the alarm and jump started the car into running. Not willing to question their good fortune, Natie took what she could recall on her driving lessons before her incarceration to rip through the parking area and out onto the highway before anyone could come to investigate. It wasn't the smoothest getaway they could hope for, seeing as she had sideswiped another car on the way out of the parking area, but they were essentially free.

It was slow going at first, and Natie's driving skills were nothing to write home about. Though everyone agreed, so long as they didn't end up careening off the side of the road, that was good enough for them. It was certainly nice to have this streak of luck working for them and the drive was going smoothly for almost half an hour now.

That is, until luck decide to leave on vacation for a minute and the sound of police sirens went off behind them. Flashing red and blue lights glowed in the rear view mirror for Natie, and the others groaned and complained about their misfortune. The gang argued on what they should do, but the decision finally came down to trying to outrun the pursuing cop. This ultimately led to even more police cruisers joining the chase and their current predicament of trying to evade the chase.

"Ok, so we've got what looks like half dozen state troopers on our tail," Sam called out from the backseat as he peered through the rear window, "Got any ideas on how we're gonna lose them?"

The question wasn't exactly directed at anyone, but Natie couldn't help but feel liable for not having an answer.

"We could always 'make' them stop chasing us," Lu suggested, arm raised and shards of concrete floating over his hand.

Isabelle gasped in shock and tried reasoning, "Lu, no! We can't use our powers on them!"

Lu was about to argue when Natie cut him off with her swerving on the road when the cops took their third shot at trying to run them off the road with a PIT-maneuver.

Getting the SUV back under control, Natie shot Lu a look, "She's right. We already have the police on us. You seriously want to lead the army, or worse, the D.U.P. right to us too?"

"Ugh, fine!" Lu groaned and banished the concrete back into his body.

The chase was getting to wear on and the escapees needed a plan. Natie did her best to appear calm and collected, but the burden of driving, keeping the others calm, and thinking of their next move simultaneously was overwhelming. "Natie, city exit on our right!" Sam jumped up from his seat to point over the electric conduit's shoulder.

Natie spotted the sign that pointed out the aforementioned exit that read 'Memphis; exit 1 mile'. Sam's quick thinking was just what they needed. They were far too vulnerable and easy to spot on this highway. The increasing number of cars and the promise of the potential maze of escape routes within a sprawling city made her decision clear. Hastily merging into the outer lane, and almost scraping against a civilian's car, the others held on tight as their driver fought to keep their means of escape under control.

Sam, Lu, and Isabelle struggled to stay on their seats from the sudden shift. Their various degrees of irritation with the action was swiftly forgotten as the woodland's receding treeline broke apart enough to reveal the numerous high-rises sprouting from the oncoming city.

"Alright, hang on!" Natie called out as she suddenly jerked the wheel.

The others nearly left their seats at this as their driver turned sharply along the overpass to catch the off ramp onto the road leading toward the city proper. The screech of the tires against asphalt filled the air until the electric conduit could get the SUV under control once again. Once done though, all that laid before them and the city limits were a couple miles of freeway. Sam, being too excited to stay in his seat, wedged himself between the two front seats and above the center console to peak out at the tops of the high-rises. It had been so long since he had seen such a view. The promise of seeing a normal day in the life of a normal city made him positively ecstatic.

"Fuck, look out!" Lu yelled in a panic.

That is, until he nearly got his face plowed into the dashboard from the sudden, screeching halt.

Justifiably angry, Sam hoisted himself up off the center console and glared between the two in the front seats, "What the hell?! Wanna give a guy a little warning next-...oh, fuck."

Having glanced out the front window to spy exactly why he was the victim of Natie's brake check, he saw the reason for their sudden halt in the middle of the road. Blocking the three lane overpass, barrier to barrier, was a line of heavy looking police SUV's. Taking cover behind them were police officers, all of which looked to be pointing their firearms straight at them. The cruisers from the chase were not far behind and screeched to a halt a few meters away. Police officers sprang from the cruisers and took up their own positions behind the cover of their vehicles while pointing their handguns in the direction of the conduits. With both sides of the road sealed off and the barrier covering the other side of the road, the group of conduit escapees were effectively boxed in.

"There's nowhere to go! Step out of your vehicle with your hands over your heads!" shouted one of the police officers in front of them through a megaphone, "If you do not comply, we are authorized to use force!"

Natie gripped the wheel of the SUV tighter in frustration from the turn in events. They had been so close, and now they were trapped. The others began to mumble and whisper about what they thought they should do. The plan was falling apart, and the gang was starting to panic.

"Natie, what are we supposed to do?" Isabelle asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

The others turned to her, as if expecting to hear an answer when none was actually available. They couldn't drive through the blockade. Their vehicle would most likely never make it and that was if the cops didn't shoot out their tires and cause them to lose control. Turning around was equally a bad idea and practically guaranteed the same results. Make a run for it? If they weren't gunned down, they'd just end up seperated and make for easier targets to pick off one after the other. Any ideas she came up with seemed impossible to pull off without risking exposure. So, it seemed that they were left with no choice.

Taking a deep breath, Natie worked up the courage to put her idea to words, "We're going through them."

The others looked at her with varying degrees of confusion until she elaborated further.

"I know I said we wouldn't use our powers, but we've no other options here. Lu, use some concrete to cover the tires so they can't blow them out as we drive by and create a ram on the front of the car. Isabelle, I know you don't like it, but we need you to create a fire barricade behind us once we're through theirs. Sam, I'm counting on you to disable any cars that try to follow us. Tangle up or blow out their tires. Lastly, you all see that building?"

They all took a moment to follow Natie's finger and what it was pointing toward. Off in the distance, a large skyscraper with a lowercase 'i' in a red circle and the word 'bank' written next to it sat prominently among its peers. It was easy to see why Natie chose this one as the emblem on the side of it made it easy to pick out.

"We split up after we lose the cops. Lay low, avoid using your powers, and make your way to the alley closest to the west side of that building. Everyone got it?"

Isabelle reluctantly nodded to the plan. Sam was equally hesitant at first, but lit up with a smile to show his support. Lu just cracked his knuckles at finally being allowed to use his powers to cause a little mayhem for a change. Natie just hoped that this cobbled together plan would work, because after this moment, it might not just be the cops after them.

Sergeant Rutherford was a decent man and an excellent police officer. The state troopers station had radioed in their entire pursuit timeline as the chase wore on. It was anticipated that the SUV they were in pursuit of would either stay on the highway, eventually running out of fuel or being run off the road. Or more likely, try to make its way into the city to use the winding streets to allow the ones using the vehicle to escape. Knowing this, the sergeant rallied a couple of his units to set up a roadblock on the off ramp where they expected the fleeing vehicle to use. Just as he thought, they bright red SUV came down onto the off ramp and hit his roadblock. With the state troopers covering their exit to the rear, they had trapped the ones that were using the stolen vehicle. Sergeant Rutherford had already issued his initial warning to the ones in the SUV, but had yet to see anyone emerge from the vehicle. He didn't want to send in officers to go apprehend the one in the SUV just yet, since the state troopers had yet to verify if they had any potential weapons. However, this little standoff could not last forever.

Taking up the megaphone in his hands once more, he dialed it on and issued his final warning, "Those of you in the vehicle! This is your final warning, come out with your hands above your-...mother of god!"

The normal looking SUV that once stood before them began to speed toward after spinning out on its tires for a few seconds, but it wasn't this fact that scared the experienced police sergeant. As the SUV peeled out of it burn out. The front passenger's window rolled down and a person's arm stuck out. Only, the hand seemed to glow in an eerie yellow light before shards of grayish rock materialized around the appendage. The shards grew larger and flew to the front of the SUV and instantly encased it in what looked like a rocky shield. This was no ordinary band of speeding law breakers, as the sergeant and the other officers along the barricade dove to the side to avoid being hit by the vehicle turned battering ram. Only one word went through the sergeant's head that could accurately describe what exactly his city was unfortunately about to be plagued by; 'bio-terrorists'.


	5. Chapter 5

D.U.P. Intranet

Network: Sigma-779 IM

Connection Status: Secure

Login: ************

Password: *****************

T: What the hell happened?

B: They escaped.

T: I know that. How?

B: Report says that they managed to break out of their suppression cuffs and fled.

T: You see? I knew I shouldn't have let you talk me out of more personnel for the transport.

B: In case you've forgotten, any more than the small team would have attracted too much attention from both of our organizations. Though, due to recent events, I'm already dealing with multiple inquires as to my authorization to their unexpected transfers.

T: Fine, I'll pull some favors to get the nearest base to raise their alert status. I can have a platoon hunt them down and bring them in myself.

B: No, there's been another complication. Apparently, the other transfer in Washington was derailed when those three bio-terrorists escaped as well.

T: So I've heard. What's your point?

B: Director Augustine has already asserted her authority over the matter. The D.U.P. has jurisdiction of both cases.

T: Wait, What about our deal? Don't tell me this was all some set up to con me!

B: Relax, the deal is still on. We'll both get what we want. I'm already sending teams down to intercept the four. As soon as I'm done with these inquiries, I will join them to make sure they are captured and ready for transport. Make sure you have a new location set up to receive.

T: Sure, just make sure none of this leads back to me. I'm not going down for some bio-terrorists.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Location: MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE (NORTH MEMPHIS DISTRICT)**_

 _ **Time: 9:38 AM**_

It almost seemed too easy...Maybe 'easy' wasn't exactly the right word for this situation. Sure, ditching the SUV in one of the those multi-tiered parking lots was easy enough. Splitting up to avoid getting caught together and avoiding the dozens, upon dozens of regular people and mixed in spots of police? Could have been a bit more difficult. Getting to the meet-up point, on top of finding the damn place, while still avoiding the increasingly alerted populace? Yeah, that one was taking Sam a little longer to do.

The plan on the overpass worked sure enough. Sam watched the cops dive out of the way through the slits of concrete on the windshield as they charged through the barricade. The impact was jarring but thanks to the concrete shell, the SUV suffered hardly a scratch. As soon as they were on the other side, Isabelle leaned out her window in the back and peppered the ground behind them with gouts of flame. The fiery deterrent made most of the cops hesitant to pursue. This left a few of the more brazen officers with their cruisers to navigate the narrow gaps in the fire barricade to continue the chase.

Sam made short work of them however with a few well placed shots of wire spears in their tires. One cruiser had even managed to flip over when it lost control. Sam was sure they were fine, hopefully. With their pursuers now lost, the conduit escapees drove through the city until they made it to a parking garage and split up.

Though now, a more pressing concern was at the forefront of the wire conduit's mind. The city of Memphis was certainly something. Hell, being anywhere outside of Curdun Cay Station after four years would look like a natural wonder in his eyes. The sights, the smells, the sounds! Everything just demanded his attention and to drink it all in. Yet, the most he was allowed to experience for the moment was an abandoned, trash heap of a lot he was hiding in, among the decaying foundation and garbage. A police cruiser drove by in a hurry with its sirens and lights, so he hid when he first heard it. Fearing that they were looking for him or the others.

"And here I thought I was getting too old to play 'hide-and-seek'," Sam whispered to himself as he watched the cruiser speed out of sight.

Sam sighed in relief and sprang up to his feet. It was time he got going. As much as the temptation of exploring a vast new environment called to him, he had a mission to complete. Looking around, the streets and surrounding sidewalks were becoming too crowded. Maybe it was due to lunch time rolling around. In any case, it left fewer gaps in the streets for Sam to cross unnoticed. That is, if he didn't use his powers.

"...Oh no, Sam," Sam sarcastically spoke aloud just to himself in mock horror, "You couldn't possibly be thinking of using your powers! Especially when Natie told us not to use them to avoid detection!"

Sam smirked, then tilted his head to the side, "But think about it, Sam. The streets are too crowded and there's a perfectly good shortcut up there across the rooftops."

Indeed, the paths upon paths were all seen through the wire conduit's eyes when he factored in his felt giddy at just the thought of freely using his abilities for the first time for himself since...well, never.

"You know what? You're right, Sam! Besides, it's practically the only way to get the meeting point on time at this point."

An excuse to use his powers. That's all it was really, but to Sam, that's all he wanted. No assessments, no strictly regulated training, no authoritative eyes upon him as he was about to do this. Just the liberating freedom to use his abilities as he pleased.

Careful to make sure no one was watching him, Sam's gaze fell on the closest building's roof ledge in the same direction of the meeting point. Sam dashed up to its wall and rechecked his surroundings, and spied no one watching him. With a satisfied smirk, Sam jabbed his left arm straight up into the air and shot a length of wire from his knuckles up to the building's roof like a grappling hook.

He felt the wire latch on tight, and with a quick test tug, he was swiftly rappelling up the side of the building. By the time Sam was over the ledge, his heart was pounding against his chest. Some of that came from the fear of being caught in the act, but the majority of his condition came from the pure joy of using his powers without restriction. As evident by the massive grin sprouting on his face.

Even though he was scared, Sam leaned over the rooftop's ledge to see the ground below. Unlike how he feared, no one was peering up in shock or horror. In fact, it thankfully appeared that no one had seen his little stunt. Overjoyed with his experience, and having gotten away with it, Sam sprang up to his feet. A feeling of overwhelming glee that made him think he could take on the world filled his soul.

Though first, he had to meet back up with the others. Turning around, Sam spied the tall bank building he was heading for not as far off as he originally thought.

"Heh, Superman may be able to leap these things in a single bound, but I'd like to see him do it in style like me," Sam chuckled to himself.

With that, the wire conduit took a running start from his end of the roof to the other and launched himself over the edge. Without missing a beat, he shot his arms out in front of him to send wires out from his knuckles to latch onto the adjacent rooftop's A/C unit. The move worked for him like a sort of zipline as he reeled himself in toward the neighboring building's roof in an instant. Tucking and rolling out from his landing, Sam continued on his way across the Memphis city rooftops like a parkour master. At the rate he was going, reaching the meeting point would be a cinch.


	7. Chapter 7

_**LOCATION: MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE (MIDTOWN DISTRICT)**_

 _ **TIME: 10:28 AM**_

Natie awaited in the empty alleyway anxiously. Had she not wanted to draw attention to herself, shed be pacing up and down its length. However, that hadn't stopped ambient arcs of vibrant, blue electricity to surge across her body with every spike of her anxiety. Fear for her fellow escapees plagued her mind, and each scenario her mind conjured of their perceived capture made the light show around her body worse.

"Control yourself," she hissed to her herself after a particularly erant bolt jumped off her thigh, "The city's large, and they need to stay hidden. They'll make it."

The weak reassurance did little for the electric conduit and she began to fidget even more. Taking a peek out into the streets from the cover from the alleyway, she watched the world. People, normal people, were going about their lives as if there was nothing wrong in the world. For them, that might be true, but for a conduit; just walking the streets in broad daylight was a risk.

That didn't matter now though, Natie's focus was on waiting for her fellow escapees to appear. Her instincts were demanding that she take action, go look for them at the very least. However, her thoughts turned to the scenario that while she went to look, the others would arrive and wonder where she was. They'd break off, thinking they had the wrong spot, and then the loop would continue. Another couple sparks leapt off her body in irritation, and she had to duck back into cover behind some garbage cans when a random passerby saw the flashes out of the corner of their eye.

Natie, once again, berated herself for her lack of self control. She had to focus, stay calm. It was the only way to make it through the day.

"Um, Natie?"

The little tap on her shoulder and voice from behind sent the electric conduit into a panic. She jumped back, spinning on her heel while her arms set alight with crackling, blue sparks. Were it not for her training and discipline, she would have cast the thousands of volts of electricity surging along her arms into Isabelle standing right behind her. As Natie's heartrate came down to more manageable levels, she breathed a sigh of relief with a breath she hadn't even realized she was holding.

"Jesus Christ, Isabelle! Don't scare me like that," Natie growled, banishing the electric currents from her arms before a passerby could notice.

"I-I'm sorry," Isabelle recoiled at the harsh words, "I-I was just trying to do like you said a-and get here unnoticed."

With the vulnerable girl on the verge of tears, Natie winced from her harsh treatment. She did tell the others to get there as quickly and quietly as possible.

With another sigh, Natie walked up to the downcast girl and patted her on the shoulder, "It's alright. It's my fault for being jumpy."

Isabelle looked back up into Natie's reassuring gaze and settled down, if just a little.

Not sure of what else to do to comfort Isabelle, Natie peeked over the other girl's shoulder, "By the way, did you see Sam or Lu on your way here?"

At this, Isabelle got another downtrodden look on her face. Natie didn't need a verbal answer to know that look meant she had not. Though, now was not the time to panic. Isabelle had made it there safe. Perhaps the others were just lagging behind? This thought didn't give Natie the hope she was looking for, but she had to remain strong for Isabelle who was, at the moment, looking to her for guidance.

"Th-those two are probably just running behind. I wouldn't worry too much about them. They may be idiots, but they know how to handle themselves."

That didn't make lying to the younger female any better, even if it did seem to ease her worry a bit.

"Well, I'm glad you have so much confidence in me."

The chipper, upbeat tone startled the two girls. From above where the voice came from, a certain wire conduit was hanging off the side of the building from a wire grappling hook at the top of the building. Equal mixtures of relieved and annoyed looks were leveled on him from below. Sam chuckled at having successfully sneaking up on the pair before dropping from his perched position to the ground, retracting his wires back into him through his knuckles in the process.

Before he could fully spring back up to full height, Sam was already being pushed up against a wall. Sparking fists shone under his chin as the electric conduit gripped the collar of his shirt while she pressed her angry face up in front of his.

In an angry whisper, Natie hissed, "What the _fuck_ are you doing?! What part of ' _no powers'_ did you not understand?"

Sam instantly threw his hands up defensively, and nervously spoke, "Can't we just hug and be glad that I got here safe?"

Natie's eyes narrowed, and her grip tightened. Causing a few sparks to leap out further.

"The streets were getting too crowded! Taking the roofs was the safest route! I had no other choice, I swear! Please don't zap me!" Sam spouted off, looking extremely wary from under Natie's scrutinizing gaze.

Natie let go of Sam's shirt collar with a huff, allowing the wire conduit to slink away. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Natie sighed in frustration. As much as she wanted to kick his ass, she knew he was making excuses, she figured with the lack of mobs bearing down on them. The wire conduit had at least been mindful in not being seen on his way there.

This only left one final concern to worry about.

"Did you see Lu on your way here?"

The wire conduit was busy brushing himself off when he was met with the question and accompanying worried expressions of his fellow fugitives.

"No," Sam shook his head, "Last I saw of him was back at the parking lot with the SUV."

Isabelle, although not so fond of the the young, asian man, couldn't help but feel a flare of worry welling up within her. Natie turned away from the others to hide her frustration and worry. She knew him well enough to believe that he would think to strike out on his own after splitting up. He'd always been rebellious and didn't take to following orders very often.

Training with and against him back in Curdun Cay had been the same. He was great at support, but his attitude left him far from cooperative. So, it wasn't like losing Lu was a catastrophe, but a small part of her wouldn't let her forget about him.

Just then, the street a few feet away from them within the alley began to tremble. Cracks began to form in its hardened surface as the three conduits prepared for whatever was coming. Chunks of concrete ripped through the spot in the alley, creating a hole from which an entity emerged. Natie, Sam, and Isabelle naturally panicked at the unexpected arrival, fearing the worst. However, when the entity's face was fully revealed, they all sighed in relief. For before them was the final member to their escapee quartet.

Lu dusted himself off before cocking an annoyed eyebrow at the other three staring at him, "...What?"

The bored sounding question was met with various expressions ranging from annoyance, to an amused smirk, and to reluctant ease.

"God dammit, Lu!" Natie fumed, "I said ' _no powers'_!"

"I'd just like to point out that I'm no longer the only one who broke the ' _no powers'_ rule," Sam butted in, but shrunk away with an innocent smile upon the glare thrown his way.

Lu ignored his seconded most hated person's comment to speak, " Would you lay off? Not like I had a choice. Bunch of thugs thought they could shake me down a couple of streets back. Not like I had anything on me. Well, except a couple of fistfuls of concrete for those dumbasses."

Natie's eyes widened in terror, "Dear god, Lu! Tell me you didn't kill them!"

Lu snorted while crossing his arms, "Would have been too easy. I swear, who knew ' _Normals'_ would go down so easy. They're not getting up anytime soon, that's for sure."

Natie couldn't believe what she was hearing. Of course, this was Lu she was thinking about. Him and restraint weren't two things you can put in the same sentence easily. Though, now was not especially a good time to dwell on a growing rap sheet. It was still the middle of the day, the city of Memphis was growing ever more aware of their presence, and running around in their detainee uniforms was like painting 'Arrest Me' across their chests.

Mirroring Natie's thoughts, Isabelle was the first to speak up, "Sorry for cutting in, but what do we do now?"

Lu was already arguing with Sam about how they should get out of the city, but trying while the local police were no doubt on high alert was going to get them spotted and chased, bringing them back to square one. Sam had moved on to his usual antagonizing of Lu which was only riling them all up even further. Yet, at this point, Natie hadn't a clue as what their next step should be.

"Um, excuse me?"

Luckily, that meek voice garnered everyone's attention just enough to allow the owner to speak out.

Isabelle shrank back a bit under everyone's stares, but she still had something to say, "I know we should be thinking about getting out of the city, but we'd probably do better if we sorta blended in a bit, I think?"

The others blinked absent-mindedly a few times as the fire conduit's words sank in. They even looked down at the grimy, orange uniforms they all still had on and even cringed or grumbled.

"There was a thrift shop down the way I came," Isabelle continued, "Very low profile, little security as far as I can tell, and as far as I've seen, no one in this district has gotten much news about our arrival."

The others were surprised by Isabelle's reasoning, if just because none of them had thought of a similar idea to begin with.

"She's right," Natie snapped to agreement, "New clothes would be far less conspicuous. We change, blend in, and find a place to lay low for a bit til we have a second escape plan. Any objections?"

Sam shrugged, perking up with a casual grin, "I'm game."

"Fuck it," Lu grunted, "Anything's better than these shitty uniforms."

Now all in agreement, Isabelle pointed out the way to the store she had talked about while Natie took the lead. She was glad to have her back to the others. At least then, they couldn't see her trepidation and anxiety for everything that was going on. Again, it was quite surprising how simply the others followed her lead, and how she slipped into their impromptu-leader role.

Natie calmed herself down as they walked by telling herself a statement in her head.

' _Think of it like the training sessions. Get in, grab the objective, avoid the alarms, and get out.'_


	8. Chapter 8

_**LOCATION: MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE (MIDTOWN DISTRICT)**_

 _ **TIME: 11:24 AM**_

Just like Isabelle said, the thrift shop was only a couple blocks away from their rendezvous point. Luckily, the street it was on seemed fairly vacant of foot traffic. That didn't mean that the four conduits could lag about. Sitting between a loaning office and a pizza joint was the unimaginatively named 'Thrifty's'. The four ran from the alley across the road they were scouting from and up to the shop's entrance. Natie held the door open, throwing Sam in by the collar of his undershirt because he was distracted by the smell of freshly baked pizza next door. Once they were all inside, Natie surveyed the new location.

It was rather bland as far as the interior design went. Pale orange dominated the color palette to a nauseating degree. Luckily, the multiple racks of clothes held a plethora of colors to offset the blandness. Looking to her right, Natie and the rest or the group spotted the, apparently, lone store clerk sitting behind a counter. The female clerk looked like a stereotypical punk rocker with all the retro gear and bright, aquamarine hair. She was obviously bored, or didn't care much for the job she worked as she was busy flicking through a magazine and noisily chewing on a piece of gum. She must have noticed that she was being watched as she casually flicked her gaze up to meet the four staring back at her.

"You all looking for something?" the punk rocker asked while raising an eyebrow.

The conduits froze. Being removed from 'normal' social interactions for the better part of a couple years tended make people like them lock up. The clerk's eyebrow raised a little higher as she waited for their answer, which she was left without.

"Look, if ya need something, try checking the racks, and make it quick. I'm kinda busy," the store clerk yawned and stretched her arms out.

Isabelle gasped, catching everyone by surprise. The rest of the conduit escapees began to panic. Thinking that she had spotted some kind of danger. The store clerk followed Isabelle's line of sight, right down to her chest.

"Is that a 'Bleeding Hearts' t-shirt?" Isabelle spoke up, a bit more enthusiastic than she usual was.

The store clerk looked down at said t-shirt she was wearing underneath her studded, leather jacket. The words ' The Bleeding Hearts' were inked on in white, jagged lettering surrounding a silhouette of a human heart in barbed wire. She smiled as she looked back up at Isabelle who had a growing, excited smile on her face.

"Guessing you're a fan too?" the store clerk perked up.

Isabelle was practically bouncing on her feet, "Ever since their debut album!"

"Really?" the store clerk looked more engaged with her customers now than she probably ever did before, "Favorite album?"

Isabelle looked thoughtful for a moment, "God, it's been so long since I listened to them, um… 'Rapping At Your Chamber Door'! Favorite Song?"

"Good choice. Actually, this one comes from that album too; 'Fistful of Glass'. Finally, favorite member of the band?"

As if they could read each other's minds, they blurted out at the same time, "Emilia Higgins!"

They shared a short chuckle before settling down and the store clerk looked to give them her full attention at last.

"Glad to see not all the fans are dead. So, what can I do you all for?"

The others just appeared dumb-struck with what just happened. Isabelle took it in stride and continued to lead in this occasion.

"Well, we need some new clothes. I guess that's pretty obvious."

The store clerk giggled as she looked over the group's worn out attire, "I gotcha. If you don't mind me asking. What's with the getups?"

"We're street performers," Isabelle answered swiftly, if only a little shaky in her reply.

"Tight."

"Um, listen. We're a little short on cash… and by short, I mean…"

The store clerk nodded in understanding to the now bashful girl's statement. She then proceeded to lean up from her seat at the counter to survey the store. Satisfied no one else was around, she leaned over the counter to whisper to the group.

"We got a couple boxes at the back corner of stuff being sent off for donation since they haven't sold. I won't say nothing if a few items get _misplaced,_ " the store clerk gave the group a wink and she leaned back in her seat with a knowing smile.

Pleased with their fortune, Isabelle gave the store clerk a happy wave, "Thanks a bunch, um…"

"Just call me, Paula," the store clerk said as she went back to flipping through her magazine.

Turning back to her companions, Isabelle's demeanor swayed back to her usual meek self while the others stared at her with varying degrees of surprise. She pushed past them, feeling somewhat embarrassed with the attention, and proceeded to the back of the store as directed to find those donation boxes.

Natie was the first to catch up as she came up beside Isabelle to whisper, "That was some quick thinking."

"I'll say," Sam was right behind them, "Wouldn't have picked ya for a punk rocker girl."

Isabelle flushed red with embarrassment, "I just really like the meaning in their songs. They really spoke to me back when I used to listen to them.

"Hey, no judgement here," Sam replied.

Natie couldn't agree more, "It also helps that that clerk hasn't realized who we are. We might not have gotten as lucky to find a place giving us free clothes anywhere else."

Speaking of which, the group had navigated their way to the back of the store and spotted the half dozen cardboard boxes sitting in the corner, each marked with the word 'donation' in black sharpie.

"Dibs on first pick!" Sam blurted out as he charged toward the stack.

"Oh hell no!" Lu wedged his way through the crowded racks of clothing, "I'm not getting stuck with some stupid, gay shirt because of you!"

Natie groaned with irritation, hoping that the two wouldn't end up making a scene, leading to their discovery. In the meantime, she and Isabelle joined the young men in rummaging through the second-hand clothing to find suitable attire.


	9. Chapter 9

_**LOCATION: MEMPHIS,TENNESSEE (MIDTOWN DISTRICT)**_

 _ **TIME: 1:04 PM**_

"Seriously though. Do these pants make my ass look big?"

"Fucking christ, shut the fuck up! I ain't gay, so I ain't looking at your ass!"

Natie groaned internally in irritation at the exchange as the four conduits made their way from the back of the thrift shop in their 'new' outfits Paula watched as the group made their way to the front, paying them compliments on their choices.

Isabelle flushed with embarrassment in her bright, blue spaghetti-string top, and tan capri pants with a daisy stamped on the outer right thigh. Her lengthy hair had also been tied into a braided knot that laid over her shoulder stylishly tied with a hair tie at the end that had a gold heart sewn onto it. Sam went with a simple pair of fitted jeans, and a black graphic t-shirt with a celtic trinity knot design printed on the front in silver. He even snagged a nice, green-hooded windbreaker jacket that he thought looked good.

Lu had went with some faded, brown cargo pants that was still slightly big for him. A leather belt fixed that issue, and he only needed to roll up the pant legs twice so the length was right. On the other hand, his gray long-sleeve, split v-neck pullover fit perfectly, so that left him satisfied with his choice. Lastly, cae Natie. Being all about practicality as she was. She went with a light blue blouse with sleeves rolled up to her elbows. The skinny jeans she wore complimented the top well while still giving her plenty of mobility. She also took a dark blue satchel she found lying in the corner of the donated items. It fit comfortably, slung over her shoulder and across her back as it was. She thought about how she could use it and decided she should have it, just in case.

Paula called out to them as they exited from the store, "You all look great! Good luck out there, and have fun!"

Isabelle waved back and offered a smile to the friendly thrift shop worker on her way, only wishing she had a little extra time to talk more about their shared taste in music. In any case, the group of conduits were back out on the street. Moving quickly, but aimlessly, Natie led as the others followed. She was deep in thought about what their next step should be. They might have ditched their detainee uniforms back at the thrift shop, but they were still wanted men and women.

"So, what's the plan now?" Sam asked the obvious as they moved to an emptier part of the street.

Natie found herself to be the center of attention once more as the rest waited on her, feeling more than a little anxious with everyone else's eyes on her. It should have been obvious; 'get out of the city'. Though as she thought about it, all the 'what if's' in that simple plan popped into her mind. She couldn't help it. Plans came and went inside her head as each little problem that could pop up within them made her doubt their success.

'What if they ran into more people that recognized them?' 'What if the police catches wind of their escape from the city and follow?' 'What if they ran into the D.U.P.?'

All had pretty low chances of happening so long as they tried not to stand out, but the initial doubt wouldn't go away now, and she couldn't get rid of them. She wouldn't have to think about it any longer though, as a pair of police cruisers threw on their sirens from behind them.

The group turned just in time to see the pair of cruisers fish tail with a screech of their tires as they parked a few meters away to face them out in the open. Before the group could properly react, four officers emerged from the cruisers. Taking up positions behind the doors to their cruisers, weapons drawn and trained on them, they stared upon the confused conduits.

"Bio-terrorists!" one of them shouted, "Get your hands behind your heads and get down on the ground! Do not resist!"

The group broke down into arguments. Stuff like 'How did they find us?' and 'Some asshole must have tipped them off.' and even 'I knew we should have raided that pizza joint'. None of that mattered now though, it seemed that laying low hadn't worked out.

"Final warning!" the same officer shouted, sounding a little scared, "Get down on the ground, or we will open fire!"

"Fuck this," Lu huffed.

Natie tried to stop him, but the concrete conduit had had enough running away.

"Fuck these guys!" Lu shouted, pointing in the officers' direction, "These dumbasses want a fight? They're about to find out who they're messing w-!"

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

The shots rang out, clear as day. Lu was knocked to ground out of surprise more so than the impact. The officers watched in horror as three shots to conduit's chest hadn't seemed to faze him as he glared back at them with hate. In fact, the concrete conduit only seemed to be even more pissed as the wounds instantly healed and he got back on his feet.

"That's how you want to play this? Fine, you morons are dead!" Lu roared as shards of concrete emerged from his fists.

Too shocked to move, the police officers quaked in fear as the concrete conduit punched his fists forward and sent a stream of concrete shards in their direction. In a last moment of reflex, three of the officers ducked behind the cover of their cruisers' doors. However, the protection they were meant to serve only blocked most of the incoming shards. A few had managed to pierce the metal frame and knock the officers back with plenty of cuts and bruises.

The one officer that had failed to duck in time suffered greatly. The shards of concrete punched right through his kevlar vest and opened up mighty gashes all across his upper body. The officer screamed in pain as he fell back writhing in agony. Meanwhile, Lu had a sadistic smile, greatly pleased with himself over his victory. He began to move in on the downed officers before Natie grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Let go, you bitch!"

Lu convulsed and fell down to his hands and knees as thousands of volts of electricity coursed through his body. It wasn't long before he started to get back up, but not before Natie hoisted him up to look him over with a pissed look.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" She screamed in his face.

Lu threw her hands off of him, though did nothing else to challenge her, "The fuck are you talking about?"

"What part of 'laying low' can't you understand?" Natie countered.

Lu snorted, "News flash, Natie! The cops found us! Laying low didn't do shit for us! Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a couple of asshole pigs to finish off."

Natie stepped in Lu's path once more, hoping that she could intimidate him enough to back off. The plan was falling apart and it scared her on not knowing what to do next.

"Please, Lu! They suffered enough! We don't need to kill them!" Isabelle latched onto Lu's back as she cried.

The concrete conduit turned to strike the clingy girl, but as he did, he looked into her eyes and saw the most pained expression he could ever imagine. He hesitated longer still, til he eventually let out a frustrated sigh and tore away from the fire conduit's grip to stand off to the side and away from the others.

"Fine, whatever!" Lu said, "Next time someone shoots me though, they're getting a shard of concrete in their head, got it?"

Natie let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. With one crisis averted, she could refocus her attention on another matter at hand. More police sirens could be heard off in the distance. It was more than likely more police on their way to try and arrest them. She turned to see her fellow conduits staring back at her anxiously awaiting what her next plan would be.

There was no time to look unsure. So, she set her expression to be firm and address her fellow conduits with authority, "We need to leave."

Lu snorted, "No shit. Where to?"

"North," Natie replied, pointing in the indicated direction, "No sirens coming from that direction. We head for the outskirts, find a place to hide, and come up with a plan to leave the city."

"You know, people are gonna be on the lookout for us throughout the city. Those cops found us awfully quick. We take the streets, and it's gonna be pretty hard to avoid notice from some of the keener eyes," Sam mentioned thoughtfully.

Natie knew this, and what she was about to say next made her bite the inside of her cheek in frustration.

"Yeah, I know. Which is why we're not taking the streets."

Something lit up in the wire conduits eyes, and a smile began to crease his lips. He and the others could already tell what the electric conduit was about to say, but that only made Natie more nervous for what it was.

"We use our powers," She finally said, "We'll cover more ground and we'll avoid street cams and the general populace."

"Hell yeah!" Sam fist pumped into the air.

The others shared various reserved looks for the plan, but eventually agreed. Natie led the way by charging her arms with electromagnetic energy. She ran up to the closest street lamp and gripped the pole. As she fed more electricity into her arms, the metal in the pole conducted her energy and flung herself skyward. From there, she channeled her electricity downward in a static haze, allowing her to float through the air to the nearest rooftop.

Sam followed suit, only, he scaled the same building Natie landed upon with another set of wire grapples, flinging himself up and over the rooftop with an excited shout. Isabelle looked back toward the injured police officers still on the ground. The ones that were only lightly injured were doing everything they could to help the critically wounded one.

For a brief moment, she met one of them in the eye. She flinched away when that officer glared back at her with the intensity of a thousand death stares. Isabelle turned away, and aimed her hands downward. Jets of flame erupted from her hands and feet and propelled her skyward and over the building's roof to follow the others.

Lu looked back at the police officers as well. He spat on the ground in their direction, giving them the meanest glare he could muster in the process. Squatting down, he channeled his own power into the ground. A concrete pillar erupted from the ground beneath his feet. He sprang up in an astoundingly high jump as it launched him upward and onto the rooftops where the others were already moving across in a northern direction.


End file.
